Measuring Impact—Understanding Progress or Creating a False Sense of Accuracy?
11 Nov
How can we determine whether companies are actually making a positive contribution to society and the environment? And what role do impact measurement and impact valuation play in this? The panel “Impact Measurement & Valuation: Promise, Practice, or Illusion?” at the Nerdy4Nature conference in Hamburg will address these questions. Dr. Frederic Penz from the Leuphana Social Innovation Community will be participating and will moderate the discussion together with Dr. Felizia von Schweinitz from the University of Hamburg.
Between Promised Impact and Actual Social Value
Organizations are increasingly faced with the challenge of not only reporting on their sustainability activities but also demonstrating the difference they actually make for people, society, and the environment. Impact measurement and impact valuation promise to make such effects visible and to integrate them more fully into business decisions. But how reliable are the underlying metrics? Can social and environmental impacts be meaningfully expressed in numbers or even monetary terms? And does better impact measurement actually lead to better decisions?
These questions are the focus of the panel discussion “Impact Measurement & Valuation: Promise, Practice, or Illusion?”, which will take place on November 12, 2026, from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. as part of the Nerdy4Nature conference in the atrium of the Hamburg State and University Library.
High-Profile Perspectives from the Business Community and Civil Society
The panel brings together diverse perspectives from academia, business, and civil society. Participants include Christian Priemer from Hamburger Hochbahn, Fabien Delaere from Danone, Sabine Tächl from REWE, Sofia Dume from Henkel, and Sabina Bals from WWF.
Together, they will discuss how companies can measure their actual social and environmental impacts and the significance of such information for strategic and operational decisions. The discussion will also address the limitations of common measurement approaches, the challenges posed by complex value chains, and the question of whether monetizing environmental and social impacts contributes to better decisions—or creates a misleading sense of precision.
The discussion will be moderated by Dr. Felizia von Schweinitz from the University of Hamburg and Dr. Frederic Penz from the Leuphana Social Innovation Community. The goal is to critically integrate scientific insights with practical experience and to discuss together how impact measurement can go beyond reporting and key performance indicators to become a tool for organizational learning and social transformation.
From Measurement to Action
The panel addresses a key challenge of sustainable transformation: How can organizations determine whether their activities are actually making a positive difference? The key is not simply to collect as much data as possible. Rather, impact data must be used in a way that shapes decisions, strengthens accountability, and enables real improvements for society and the environment.
The discussion is part of the Nerdy4Nature conference, which combines scientific perspectives with the practical challenges of the sustainability transformation.